Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog

Investigative Reporter for World of Warcraft Tradeskills

I just wanted to share how proud I am of myself for making my first piece of epic gear for Kaliope, my druid. It feels like quite an accomplishment, considering how hard it was to reach 375 in Leatherworking just to unlock the epic recipes. I'm glad that Blizzard gave me at least one item I could make that didn't require a Primal Nether, because I totally don't have one. That would be very disappointing to work hard for the level cap and then have nothing to make. Although I suppose most folks wouldn't bother skilling up if they didn't have something specific they wanted to make.

At any rate, it took me another week to collect more Primal Air so I could make my Windhawk Bracers. I also needed Wind Scales, which I had to farm for. Luckily I found a nice spot in Blade's Edge where I could wander around and kill the wind serpents without dealing with too many annoying adds. Directly to the east of Death's Door is a spot with stealthing spiders, raptors and serpents. They are 65-67, so a level 70 can walk around most of the critters without aggro if they are careful. I liked this place better than most places I've seen wind serpents, because there are more of them packed into a small area. Most other spots I've investigated are very spread out and a low ratio of serpents (Skald/Cosmowrench).

Now I realize I could have just gone to the AH and bought all this stuff, but I just don't like to do that. I'm more of a crafting purist, so it kinda feels like cheating if I don't farm my own materials when I'm making myself a really special piece of armor. Although I have to admit I did cheat a little, I got impatient after farming half the Primal Airs. It doesn't help that I'm also farming Primal Air with Korlyn so she can make Felsteel Whisper Knives to skill up her Smithing. I was getting a little tired of killing air mobs... sorry. Since I needed to do some fishing anyway, I farmed water motes instead. I was able to get some Primal Waters, so I decided to sell those and use the cash to buy the remaining Primal Airs. I still farmed, just not the exact ingredients for my item. Still kinda cheating, but I feel a little better about myself.

On a side note, I took Krystella (Jewelcrafter/Rogue) to Black Morass and finally completed the last step of the Kara chain with her. Much to our surprise, a Primal Nether dropped from the last boss there. It was soooo hard not to roll on that thing! Poor Kaliope was crying in agony for the Windhawk Belt she would have been able to make, but for one Primal Nether :(

So what about you guys... how do you feel about crafting for your own toons? Prefer to farm the mats or just buy them? Feel free to comment about your lost Nethers too, lol.

15 comments:

Regarding the mats for crafted items, i personally farm everything possible, and if everything else fails, i try to trade it with a guildmate or friend in exchange for something else. And if i don`t buy something, i´m really proud later when i see the crafted item. Buying the mats is somehow not the same, also its the same item when its finished ;)

Thank you for your entertaining an informative Blog, i enjoy reading it every time i step by.

I definitely buy from the AH for my crafting... as an alch, transmuting cheap primals to more expensive ones is a very easy way to make money with practically no effort involved. Buy a stack of 10 primal earths for 30-40 gold, transmute one a day to water primals, sell them individually and you make your money back 5 fold.

Personally I think that if you have a gathering profession, that's what you should farm. No use in competing with a ton of other toons over the fire elementals when you can just strutt around killing talbuks for their leather. Then just offload the leather and buy the necessary primals! Problem is, leather prices seem to go up and down like a rollercoaster, so sometimes I make 100g/h and sometimes 50g/h. And when it's down it's more profitable to farm motes. Only not as safe as talbuks ;)

I am still skilling up my leatherworking... and so far I've been able to farm all myself. But I am rapidly reaching that wall of "no more greens to craft for skillpoints"... at that point I assume AH will be tempting...

I farm my own stuff for skillups and personal crafting unless I'm really, really frustrated. (I finally gave up on the last 200 thorium I needed to get my Paladin's Blacksmithing to 300 and bought it all in the auction house, I've had it with thorium farming for good after Jewelcrafting, Engineering and Blacksmithing.)

I've seen Primal Nether drop on my Alchemist and Jewelcrafter, but not my Leatherworker yet. (And I suspect I'll eventually have to respec Holy or Protection on my Paladin if I want to see one drop for Blacksmithing.)

I don't want to say I've given up on crafting, but ... lately I've mainly been focusing on gathering professions and enchanting for, yes you guessed it, making gold. Right now I'm focusing on herbalism/enchanting on one character and mining/enchant on another.

I have to say I shed more than a small tear, though, when I took my 300 goblin engineer and made her an enchanter. But now I can d/e all the stuff I get from instances as well as having all the l33t enchants, so it works out.

Well for those 2 epic pieces in LW (Windhawk Bracers and Belt) I farmed all the items, just exchanging so Primals Here and there with the guild to get all the Damn Primal Airs.

As for the Windscale scales, there is a really sweet spot in Shadowmoon Valley where you can kill lots of Dragonhawks and worry very little for any other mob. The Dragonhawks in Eclipse point have even a better chance to drop Scales than the wing serpents in BEM or Netherstorm. I can easily farm a stack of them in less than 30 min.....taking into account that I also kill some BELfs there to gather some signets.

Now Im in the painful process of gather all the Primals that you need for the Vest.

Alaz: Thanks for sharing your info on the Windhawk mats, I would never have thought to use Eclipse point for farming wind scales. Since I'm Scryer it wouldn't trouble me too much to end up with signets. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets tired of air motes!

I'm a "gold purist" I must make the most profitable trade before i do anything else...

I'm an alchemist/herbalist... yet at some point i had 60 large prismatic shards. Number of enchants I got with them = ZERO.

I also had 60 khorium bars not long ago... still trying to sell them at a good price.

I NEVER farm Primal of mana for my xmutes... On the other hand i feel a lot of acomplishment if i buy them for cheap and resell them.

Guess I'm not a crafting purist... I'm just a gold hungry Hippo :)

BTW, my first (and sadly only) crafted epic is my beautiful Alchemist Stone. I love every piece of it. I guess i could say that my Fel Mana and Fel Regenation potions are unique... and that my Flask of Supreme power also kicks ass but sadly alchemists only get 1 Epic item.

I prefer to farm. Gives you a proud feeling of "I made this". On the other hand, I do keep an eye on the auction house. If I see that some fool has put the mats I need up at a cut-rate price, I'll buy'em. Figure I can go back and farm the same stuff and then sell it at full price; not that I ever do, but it's a useful arguement I use on meself.

I'm currently a 356 Lw and have been since level 62ish. I'm currently level 66 and have found the matierals to be amusing. I can make items for level 69's [blues] but the matierals would require near enough one hour to farm the mats, per 1 item. I am a grinding machine [Huntard ftw] and with Aspect of the Viper, I don't need to stop for mana breaks and thanks to pretty nifty pet control, i rarely/never have to use melee, therefore taking damage.

Thick Clefthoof leather is needed by the stacks and on my server, a stack can go for 60g. Primal Airs are needed in the half a dozens. I can grind 85 motes of water in one hour so i have no problems with that ^_^.

My question to you,Should I save up the matierals and make the items i can't use [too low a level] and wait till level 70 to blast my profession, should i make the items as i go along and hope those yellows tick me over or should i forget about levelling until a higher level and focus on Lw'ing then?

Airs are unpredicable drops and i know a simple route in Nagrand that i can take but the income of motes are unreliable and time consuming.

Hey Silver - I don't know that it matters too much whether you save up mats now for a big push @ 70 or just craft as you go. Either way you're right, it will take about an hour of farming per item to hit 375. The upside to doing it now is that you could be selling those items and raising some cash if you need it. If nothing else, collecting mats now will help you get XP that you won't get when you're 70, so that's another benefit. Of course, at 70 you will kill that much faster so the time investment for the same outcome will go down.

You will notice that the mats sell for more than the finished item - one of the downsides of crafting. If want to see specifics on how I got to 375, you can view my other post here:

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